A Dallas hospital is expected to open a fourth COVID-19 ward to treat the surge of new patients because the county has the highest number of new cases in a single day since December last year.
Parkland Memorial Hospital said on Friday that due to the highly contagious Delta variant, the number of infections continues to soar, so it may need to expand its coronavirus treatment center.
The chief medical officer of the hospital, Joseph Zhang, warned National Broadcasting Corporation 5 The hospital may run out of resources soon.
“I think there is no way to avoid opening the fourth [ward]. The only question is will I have to open more? If we must, we will,” Zhang told the news media. “We will do our best. But at some point, we will run out of resources, and that will be a very, very difficult day. “
Earlier this month, Parkland was forced to Transfer some pregnant women from the hospital In order to make room for more COVID patients. Chang said that the situation is so serious that he hopes to take people into his coronavirus ward for 10 minutes, just to see that the patient has difficulty breathing.
“Guys, this is true. We are not making up these things,” Zhang said. “In my COVID ward, people really look like a fish out of the water. If they can only see it once, no one would want to be that person.”
Parkland Hospital is one of the largest hospitals in the country, with an average of more than 1 million patients visiting each year. According to Chang, the number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus in Parkland jumped from 110 to 150 in just four days. At present, the vast majority of patients (or 90%) are not vaccinated.
“Among all patients, the proportion of vaccinated patients is so low that it is not even mentioned. This is too dramatic,” Zhang said on Friday.
As the Delta variant continues to spread, Chang added that the rate of hospitalization for young people in Parkland is rising. Now, 40% of existing patients are younger than 50 years old, and 20% are older than 65 years old, which is a huge change from January when most patients were older. Chang warned that with the reopening of the school, the situation may soon deteriorate.
“The parents of our students are between 30 and 40 years old,” Zhang said. “Those young children are basically not vaccinated. They will take it home, and those 30 and 40 years old will get sick. We are in such a situation now, if we don’t pay attention, it will be a real problem.”
As the number of hospitalizations in Dallas increases, the county and state’s coronavirus infection rates are soaring.According to a New York Times According to the database, Dallas County recorded an average of 1,159 cases per day on Friday, an increase of 37% from the average two weeks ago.
According to the database, the county reported more than 4,400 new cases on Wednesday, the highest number of new cases in a single day since the county reported more than 6,000 cases in December last year.
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Texas is one of the hardest-hit states in recent weeks. Its latest data on Wednesday showed that it recorded 20,058 new COVID cases, an average of 13,457 cases in 7 days. There were also 174 deaths in the state on Wednesday, with an average of 100 deaths in seven days, and 12,402 hospitalized due to COVID.
Chang urged Texas residents to be vaccinated on Friday, adding that the epidemic is now “the vast majority of unvaccinated diseases.”
“The COVID-19 Delta variant doesn’t care about your age, who you are, what politics you have, or anything else. It only cares that you are not vaccinated and can be infected,” Zhang told NBC 5.
Weekly newspaper Contacted Parkland Memorial Hospital for more comments, but did not respond to publication in time.
